The Real Thailand Vs Your Thailand

[beerchang]

Aw maan! Only one pic appeared. How to upload more than one in the same post?

[Unfaithful]

White Skin, Height, Top .001% of earners for my age bracket. Its not a Thai/Farang thing. Sure, there will always be people richer taller or prettier than you. My point, really, is that Thailand is like an all you can eat buffet. Imagine how hard one would have to work in England or Japan to become a top .001% earner in their age bracket? Living in Thailand is like being able to use the cheat codes in a video game.

I guess modesty is not your virtue, Don.I'm in the top 0.000000000% of Thai beggars in my age bracket.And I know a Thai who stands 189 cm tall, and a Chinese who stands 231 cm.

[mahtin]

Aw maan! Only one pic appeared. How to upload more than one in the same post?

Too big.

http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1028

[IanForbes]

Keeping busy in 'my' real Thailand: (hope the pics come out)

We used to call that "making snow angels", except there's no snow in Thailand.

[ThaiBasil]

White Skin, Height, Top .001% of earners for my age bracket. Its not a Thai/Farang thing. Sure, there will always be people richer taller or prettier than you. My point, really, is that Thailand is like an all you can eat buffet. Imagine how hard one would have to work in England or Japan to become a top .001% earner in their age bracket? Living in Thailand is like being able to use the cheat codes in a video game.

I guess modesty is not your virtue, Don.I'm in the top 0.000000000% of Thai beggars in my age bracket.And I know a Thai who stands 189 cm tall, and a Chinese who stands 231 cm.

Yao Ming???

[PeaceBlondie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yao_Ming

2.29 meters - probably so.

[David006]

Btw, here is what I look like incase you see me out on the town and want to buy me a shot of rye.

Hmm…the forehead is a bit too big for me, and I don’t like a smoker..I can see a ciggy there

Can’t see the bottom half well, for all I know it could look like a butterball.

Also…you do look a bit stuck-up, all-that!!…with the “SP” personality (judging from the pix and posts)……a bit turn off - for me.

Btw…not everyone is poor, and throwing ourselves at any first available farang we see. Many of us do have better pick among our own local boys…..better looking, loving, considerate, caring, not a butterfly, not full of themselves,…similar ages & socioeconomic…..etcs

There are plenty of them, single & available!!!

And

Ooh you would be quite surprised how many of us (both white and darker skin tone…also anything in between)…are much richer than a lot of farangs over here.

So don’t flatter yourself too much when in thailand…yeah

Those are also another side of the real Thailand, and want to pass them along

Just in case you don’t understand the local language well, and some looks you may be getting.

Well you did ask…about the real Thailand.

Just want to contribute something..

Goodonya Ms..bout time someone put these trucking tankers on the right page... :D

[epistememe]

Hate to throw a wet blanket on the kumbaya ambiance.....but I think there is some confusion between the terms Real and Idealized. The REAL Thailand is Pattaya just as much as Mae Sot. They are both part of the whole...which is Thailand. To think otherwise is to discount one over the other purely for personal subjective reasons. When one suggests rural rice farmers are the "REAL" Thailand and HiSo Bangkok residents are not, one is showing their preferred idealized version of Thailand, not the Real version. So Get Real People

[Harcourt]

Hate to throw a wet blanket on the kumbaya ambiance.....but I think there is some confusion between the terms Real and Idealized. The REAL Thailand is Pattaya just as much as Mae Sot. They are both part of the whole...which is Thailand. To think otherwise is to discount one over the other purely for personal subjective reasons. When one suggests rural rice farmers are the "REAL" Thailand and HiSo Bangkok residents are not, one is showing their preferred idealized version of Thailand, not the Real version. So Get Real People

In throwing a wet blanket on the kumbaya ambience, I think you show your own personal subjectivity on it. Nothing wrong with that....if Pattaya is what turns you on, so be it.

You are right in a way that ALL of it IS in fact Thailand, but I think the OP had an intention which the "kumbaya" crowd have understood. There is nothing "idealised" by Isaan rice farmers, nor by HiSo BKK residents, but there is definitely something uncustomary and not naturally Thai with the Pattaya sex tourists or the general tourist superficiality....these are introduced phenomena, and thus not traditionaly "REAL".

I think you with your wet blanket have not grasped the spirit of the OP. There ARE indeed comparisons to be made to the "Real Thailand vs your Thailand" of the title.

[dondraper]

The Thai girls in Pattaya who all these sex tourists come here for are ugly.

[epistememe]

In throwing a wet blanket on the kumbaya ambience, I think you show your own personal subjectivity on it. Nothing wrong with that....if Pattaya is what turns you on, so be it.

I have never been to Pattaya.

You are right in a way that ALL of it IS in fact Thailand, but I think the OP had an intention which the "kumbaya" crowd have understood. There is nothing "idealised" by Isaan rice farmers, nor by HiSo BKK residents, but there is definitely something uncustomary and not naturally Thai with the Pattaya sex tourists or the general tourist superficiality....these are introduced phenomena, and thus not traditionaly "REAL".

Now I think you are confusing Real Thailand with Traditional Thailand. Real Thailand is what exists now, good, bad, ugly, or beautiful; not what it was in some historical time period.

I think you with your wet blanket have not grasped the spirit of the OP. There ARE indeed comparisons to be made to the "Real Thailand vs your Thailand" of the title.

Oh I think I get the spirit of the OP, and I do apologize for being something of a spoil sport on this...but I think it is important for people to be reminded that the "Real Thailand" is a complex amalgam of cultures, trends, historical legacy, and changing dynamics. It would be like saying the "Real America" is a farm on the outskirts of Lincoln, Nebraska. The real America, like the Real Thailand can not be represented by so simple a view. The Real Thailand is represented by a large Japanese assembly factory in the suburbs of BKK as much as a small farming village in Issan.

So I see this as an exercise in nostalgia and maybe denial, more than a honest look at the "Real Thailand".

[Harcourt]

In throwing a wet blanket on the kumbaya ambience, I think you show your own personal subjectivity on it. Nothing wrong with that....if Pattaya is what turns you on, so be it.

I have never been to Pattaya.

You are right in a way that ALL of it IS in fact Thailand, but I think the OP had an intention which the "kumbaya" crowd have understood. There is nothing "idealised" by Isaan rice farmers, nor by HiSo BKK residents, but there is definitely something uncustomary and not naturally Thai with the Pattaya sex tourists or the general tourist superficiality....these are introduced phenomena, and thus not traditionaly "REAL".

Now I think you are confusing Real Thailand with Traditional Thailand. Real Thailand is what exists now, good, bad, ugly, or beautiful; not what it was in some historical time period.

I think you with your wet blanket have not grasped the spirit of the OP. There ARE indeed comparisons to be made to the "Real Thailand vs your Thailand" of the title.

Oh I think I get the spirit of the OP, and I do apologize for being something of a spoil sport on this...but I think it is important for people to be reminded that the "Real Thailand" is a complex amalgam of cultures, trends, historical legacy, and changing dynamics. It would be like saying the "Real America" is a farm on the outskirts of Lincoln, Nebraska. The real America, like the Real Thailand can not be represented by so simple a view. The Real Thailand is represented by a large Japanese assembly factory in the suburbs of BKK as much as a small farming village in Issan.

So I see this as an exercise in nostalgia and maybe denial, more than a honest look at the "Real Thailand".

I think it's understood that any country is multifaceted.

If this thread is an excersise in nostalgia and realism, great. Lets not make it an excersise in peurile semantics.

[Ulysses G.]

there is definitely something uncustomary and not naturally Thai with the Pattaya sex tourists or the general tourist superficiality....these are introduced phenomena, and thus not traditionaly "REAL".

There has been a huge Thai sex industry for hundreds of years that dwarfs anything directed at Westerners and it is REAL as can be.

[Harcourt]

there is definitely something uncustomary and not naturally Thai with the Pattaya sex tourists or the general tourist superficiality....these are introduced phenomena, and thus not traditionaly "REAL".

There has been a huge Thai sex industry for hundreds of years that dwarfs anything directed at Westerners and it is REAL as can be.

Really? I didn't know that. I would very much like to read your source on that.

[Ulysses G.]

It is not a big secret.

[phutoie2]

Yes a lot of foreigners are under the impression that the sex industry has been organized solely for their benefit.

They need to get out more! a quick few minutes in the local karaoke bars on the edge of your average size town is a good introduction.

On a side note, I have to laugh now when the Bangkok Post no longer refers to girls who work in the bars as 'bar girls'. They are now 'sex workers'

That clears it all up for me

[daoyai]

As usual google will enlighten on this prohibited subject..... As to the topic, I am of the it is all real camp, how can it not be? It is not just semantics.

[Harcourt]

As usual google will enlighten on this prohibited subject..... As to the topic, I am of the it is all real camp, how can it not be? It is not just semantics.

It is semantics. Look at the OP title and infer the meaning the OP intended.... I will stand to be corrected.

I have already conceded that indeed it is ALL real, in the technical semantic use of the word.

[Harcourt]

It is not a big secret.

You say "huge Thai sex industry for hundreds of years that dwarfs anything directed at Westerners ..."

While I am certain that Thai men avail themselves of the services of the worlds oldest profession, I am genuinely suprised that pre-Western Thailand had a bigger sex industry than it has now.

So suprised, in fact, that I will ask you to back your statement up. Huge. Hundreds of years. Dwarfs the present.

[Ulysses G.]

I said that it was huge and that it dwarfs the one catering to Westerners, nothing about it being bigger than the Thai sex industry now.

[Harcourt]

I said that it was huge and that it dwarfs the one catering to Westerners, nothing about it being bigger than the Thai sex industry now.

Sorry, I misunderstand what "dwarfs" means. I thought it meant "makes it look smaller".

[Ulysses G.]

Well, let that be a lesson to you.

[Harcourt]

Well, let that be a lesson to you.

. Never mind.

[Spee]

there is definitely something uncustomary and not naturally Thai with the Pattaya sex tourists or the general tourist superficiality....these are introduced phenomena, and thus not traditionaly "REAL".

There has been a huge Thai sex industry for hundreds of years that dwarfs anything directed at Westerners and it is REAL as can be.

Other than Ian's pix, this is one of the more "real" replies in this thread.

That aside, I echo the sentiments of others that Thailand is a multi-faceted country, and would speculate that few if any of us may have seen all of them. The title of the OP "The Real Thailand Vs Your Thailand" implies that "my" Thailand may not be the "real" Thailand. If I've been there, done that, and had my own unique experiences, then aren't they "real?"

Personally, as one who has led a pretty active and nomadic life at times, my "real" Thailand is at my house up in the village. It's nice, peaceful, comfortable, spacious and paid for. When I am there, I really feel like I am home. From the quiet evenings to the bucket showers to the clear bright stars at night to the local street market that has all of Thailand's food bounty available for what I might pay for a single, sit down meal in the west, what's not to like? The same goes for my responsibilities to take care of my partner and her daughter who calls me "Papa." It gives me pleasure to see them be able to see parts of life that they might not have been able to see under different circumstances. That's about as real as it gets.

Yes, I do also enjoy a stop in Soi Cowboy on my way into or out of the country. No, it's not that kind of stop. I've been going to same place for years, where I'm known to the owner and several of the women who work there. They know when I come in, I want to throw back some Heinie, maybe do a shot or two with the girls, play some pool and have some fruit and food brought in for me and everyone else to enjoy. That's also as real as it gets, as part of Thailand as anything else, though certainly not important at all relative to things on the home front.

My "real" Thailand may not be the OP's "real" Thailand, or anyone else's, but it's real enough for me. Others may feel the same way. Is that good enough to rate a kumbaya moment?